


a warm place

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Huddling For Warmth, Too close for comfort, Unresolved Sexual Tension, nose rubbing, on the field together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 06:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6227515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: nose rubbing</p>
            </blockquote>





	a warm place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AvatarQuake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarQuake/gifts).



The truck doesn’t stop shaking.

At some point they both must have fallen asleep - or fallen into a cold-induced coma, Daisy is not sure of the difference anymore - and she wakes up with Coulson’s face pressed against hers, his nose nudging at the bridge of her nose. She pushes back, because Coulson’s face is the only warm thing in the whole truck and right now it seems like the only warm thing in the whole world. It’s so nice Daisy is sure she even moans a little. As Coulson slowly wakes up his mouth moves across Daisy’s chin, his lips colder than his nose but still A Good Thing.

“Sorry,” he says, realizing.

“It’s okay,” Daisy tells him and then shakes her head, bumping their noses together. There’s still that nice feeling of warm skin on her not-so-warm skin and she sighs a bit against the touch.

He pulls back, leaning against the side of the truck. It’s a bad idea, Daisy decides, because now there’s air between them, _cold air_ , and she grits her teeth.

“How long have we been out?” he asks.

Daisy tries to shrug but her body is numb.

“Forty minutes? Three hours? Your guess is as good as mine.”

“You think we crossed the border?”

“If we did I was asleep,” she says.

Coulson lets out a dissatisfied groan.

Daisy sits up, or at least she sits straighter, having slipped down the floor with Coulson’s weight on her. Little tendrils of pain spread across her muscles - specially her butt - when she moves.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch.”

“Yeah,” Coulson agrees, more taciturn but equally in discomfort.

She looks up at him, all pale except for his pinkish nose, looking so out of place in the winter clothes they miraculously managed to borrow in their escape.

Daisy chuckles at him.

“That hat looks good on you,” she says.

Coulson lifts his chin, showing off his Soviet-style hat all haughty and proud like a southern belle.

Daisy is wearing a more discreet one, but Coulson’s is probably warmer. She tries to figure out a way to make him give it to her. Shouldn’t be too hard, it’s Coulson.

They left Harbin in a hurry. This truck and its driver the only they could find willing to smuggle two SHIELD agents in an undercover mission out of the country. The downside of their organization being legitimate again, they had to keep a low profile. No extraction team - this wasn’t a combat op, but detection would have been fatal. They didn’t really have time to grab enough clothes for the trip.

“Can you feel your butt? Is it just me?” Daisy asks.

“My nose is the only warm part of my body.”

Daisy raises an eyebrow and is instantly felled by Coulson’s eyeroll.

“That must be because I kept breathing on it while you were asleep,” she explains.

“Mmm.” He looks away. “Sorry about that again.”

She somehow unburies her own hand from under her coat and takes off her glove. She can’t quite feel her fingers so it’s mostly okay to expose them like this. She lift her hand to Coulson’s face. He doesn’t even flinch when she starts brushing her fingers against his nose, feeling the warm skin. 

“You’re right, it’s warm,” she says, caressing the curve of his nostril. “I’m jealous.”

He has a nice nose, now that she is drawing the shape of it with her fingertips, it’s slightly comical and slightly attractive at the same time. Coulson breathes into the heel of her hand and that’s really nice too, a wave of warmth. He breathes really slowly too, whether from the cold or because she’s touching him in quite an intimate way she doesn’t know. She pulls her hand away, pained to let go of the warmth.

“If it gets too bad I can vibrate our bodies so we’ll get warm,” she tells Coulson. “But I was trying to save energy in case we’re found out.”

“That’s fine,” he tells her. “It’s just a bit uncomfortable.”

“You can say that again,” Daisy protests.

She thinks he’s way too far away, even though their shoulders and hips are touching.

“I can’t feel my thighs,” she says, rubbing her hands over her legs.

“I’m sorry,” Coulson tells her. “I should have handled our escape better.”

She shakes her head. It was their mission, they drew the plan together. He’s not to blame for unforeseen circumstances, even though he totally will, every freaking time. But hey, if he really feels bad and wants to make it up to her...

“Sit on me,” she says.

Coulson blinks carefully, like he might have misheard her. “What?”

“Sit on my lap, that’ll warm me up.”

“I’m not-”

“Come on, I’ll sit on your lap later, I’m dying here, Coulson.”

When Coulson finally starts moving he has this incredulous expression like he’s not completely sure how she talked him into this - Daisy is not sure either. He manages to somehow stand up despite the cold and walk to the other side of Daisy, so he can lower himself across her legs. It’s funny that he didn’t think it was a joke at all. Daisy thought it’d be awkward but who cares, as soon as Coulson is sitting on her lap and basically covering her with his body she feels much better, warmth returning to her thighs little by little.

“Better?” he asks, looping his arm around her neck, Daisy doing the same, grabbing his jacket on his back, holding him in place so the shaking of the truck on bad roads doesn’t make him lose balance.

“Much,” she says. “You have a warm butt, Phil.”

He smiles in gratitude when Daisy throws her arm across his chest, rubbing him for warmth. She can feel him trying to make himself smaller or lighter, fearing he’s too heavy for her. He would have been, once upon a time. But now her body has changed and she is strong and taut and can easily hold him like this.

Once upon a time he would have been too heavy for her in other senses too.

“You’re not too uncomfortable, are you?”

Coulson brings his knees closer to his chest so they are both completely tangled in each other.

“Surprisingly, no, I’m not,” he tells her.

Their faces are close again, like when they woke up and were touching without realizing. Daisy likes it. Coulson is holding her gaze, seemingly okay with this situation as well.

Then the truck comes to a stop.

They hold their breaths, wondering if they are about to be discovered and they’ll have to fight. Daisy can feel Coulson’s heart thudding against her, his eyes have gone focused and colder, in mission mode after the teasing (and the flirting, she’s not an idiot) and now there’s a restrained power oozing off him. She, too, focuses. The hand that is not holding Coulson by his back turns into a fist as soon as the truck stops moving.

They hear some muffled voices outside (she watches Coulson’s jaw tense and realizes hers is doing the same) but then it passes; the truck starts moving again, just like before, no sign that it has changed route or something is wrong at all.

They breathe out at the same time and into each other’s faces and they smile, relieved. Daisy feels Coulson’s body go soft between her arms.

“This is nice,” Daisy says.

“What, freezing to death in the back of a Chinese truck?” he asks. “Or having me in your lap?”

“Working together on a mission,” she says. The last couple of days haven’t been exactly fun, but there’s an extra excitement about being on the field with Coulson. She thinks they should do this more often, distractions and all. “You’re a good - mmm - partner.”

She has been pulling their bodies together, tugging at Coulson’s jacket, until their noses are touching again, like when they woke up. She knows she has to move first, tilting her head slightly and rubbing the tip of her nose almost imperceptibly against Coulson’s nose. It’s still wonderfully warm against Daisy’s skin. After she’s done it a close of times, touching their noses together, sideways and also drawing hers along the length, Coulson wraps both his gloved hands around her shoulder, turning her towards him so they’re properly face to face.

He moves first now, pressing his mouth against hers.

Daisy wishes it wasn’t so cold and her lips hadn’t gone numb ages ago so she could feel the kiss more. It’s barely a kiss, just Coulson brushing his lips against hers so very carefully and then a nervous breath passes between them. Coulson pulls back - it’s barely a kiss, yet it’s more exciting than so many more intimate touches Daisy has shared with others in the past. It makes her lungs ache with something more than the icy air in here.

“Mmm,” she says, licking her bottom lip, trying to recapture the feeling.

Coulson gives her an inquiring look. He is looking all chill and nonchalant but he should probably remember Daisy can feel his slightly panicked vibrations right now.

She smiles, trying to reassure him.

“Maybe let’s wait to do this some more when we’re not crossing the tundra in a truck,” she offers. She starts thinking about the scenario, deciding this is going to be a very long journey indeed. “We should try again after we arrived at the base,” she goes on, daydreaming. “And maybe take a long hot shower and put on those soft SHIELD issue bathrobes. Do this again when our skin is pink from a really, really warm shower. What are you thinking?”

Coulson shifts a bit, like he’s uncomfortable.

“I’m thinking I’m glad it’s me on your lap and not the other way around,” he tells Daisy.

She rolls her eyes. Coulson tries to smirk but it hurts.

“Okay, charm school,” she tells him. “But keep close, I wouldn’t want you freezing to death before _that_.”

Coulson does as he is told. 

They keep close for the rest of the trip, faces pressed together, sometimes their noses rubbing against each other - for warmth, totally - and sometimes there are barely-kisses, until they can get to the real thing.


End file.
